The Bison women’s softball team traveled to Maryland for the Towson Invitational on March 3-4, finishing 3-1 on the weekend and improving their overall record to 7-7 for the season.

After the first day of competition was cancelled, the Bison took on Quinnipiac on Mar. 3, defeating the Bobcats by a final score of 12-9. Leading off the game with a walk was Lauren Hadley ’19, followed by Halie Mariano ’20 who tallied a single. In the highlight of the game, Meghan Kovac ’18 blasted a three-run home run over the right field fence to give the Bison the early advantage. Kovac now has 15 career home runs, putting her in third place for the University’s home run record. Anna Gimmestad ’19 added a RBI single later in the inning to put the Orange and Blue ahead 4-0.

In the second inning, Paulina Gutkin ’18, after a long at-bat, managed to get to first, steal second and third, and score on Kovac’s two-out single. In the third inning, Gimmestad and Taylor Wolfgang ’21 had back-to-back RBI doubles, followed by a single by Julienne Egofske ’20 and a triple from Hadley.

The Bison took a 9-1 lead into the fifth inning, but the Bobcats threatened to rally, bringing the score to 11-9 in the sixth inning. Pitcher Lauren Lichtenwalner ’20 pulled through for the Bison in the seventh with a 1-2-3 inning to secure the victory.

In their next game, the Orange and Blue dominated St. John’s with a 6-3 victory. Wolfgang hit her first career home run while Raeanne Geffert ’20 only gave up two hits in a seven inning performance. After a disappointing two-run, four-error start to the first inning, Geffert was able to strike out two batters to end the inning. In the bottom of the second, the Bison scored four runs, three off of a triple by Gutkin. Wolfgang led off the fourth inning with her homer, followed by a RBI double by Hadley that led Gimmestad to score.

The following day, the Bison faced St. John’s a second time, defeating them once again with a score of 6-1. Geffert pitched a winning game for the second time during the tournament, giving up only two hits in 14 innings of play overall. Hadley, Kovac and Gutkin contributed two hits apiece, Gimmestad had a triple and Lichtenwalner had a double. Mariano added a single, as well.

“I could not be more proud of the progress the team has already made this season. We have a lot of depth both defensively and offensively, which makes our team hard to beat against any opponent,” Mariano said.

In their final game of the tournament, the Bison fell to host team Towson 3-0. Taylor Langtry ’18 came in as relief during a bases-loaded inning and got the Bison out of trouble with back-to-back strikeouts. Wolfgang had a double in addition to singles from Hadley, Lichtenwalner, Gutkin and Ryanne Rokos ’19, but the effort was not quite enough to secure the undefeated weekend.

“The team was faced with great adversity such as the crazy wind, cold temperatures, and changes in the game schedule due to the weather, but the team persevered and successfully got the job done,” Egofske said. “We took one game at a time and celebrated the success along the way while sticking to our routine”.

The Bison will travel to Georgia to play in the Kennesaw State’s Rafter Memorial Tournament from March 10-17.